In the current work, rice straw nanofibers (RSNF) with the width of elementary fibrils (~ 4–5 nm) were isolated from rice straw. The isolated nanofibers were used with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) to prepare flexible nanopaper films. Tensile strength and electrical properties of the prepared RSNF/ZnONPs nanopaper were investigated. The addition of ZnONPs to RSNF nanopaper did not deteriorate its mechanical properties and showed a slight improvement in tensile strength and Young's modulus of about 14% and 10%, respectively, upon the addition of 5% of ZnONPs. Microscopy investigation using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the inclusion of the ZnONPs within the RSNF. Electrical conductivity and dielectric properties as a function of frequency at different temperatures were studied. The ac‐electrical conductivity increased with frequency and fitted with the power law equation. The dc‐ electrical conductivity of the samples verified the Arrhenius equation and the activation energies varied in the range from 0.9 to 0.42 eV. The dielectric constant decreased with increasing frequency and increased with increasing temperature, probably due to the free movement of dipole molecular chains within the RSNF nanopaper. The high values of the dielectric constant and conductivity of the prepared nanopaper films support their use in electronic components.
This study explored the remediation of polluted synthetic and real wastewaters by titanium oxyhydroxide/titanium phosphate (TTP) and TTP/active carbon (TTPC) composites. TTP materials were synthesized in mild conditions by hydrolyzing TiCl4 in a basic medium followed by the reaction with phosphoric acid. Analyses revealed that TTP is a nano-sized low crystalline material (average diameter of TTP ~ 6 nm) composed of 38.38% TiO(OH)2 and 59.89% titanium phosphate. The maximal removal capacities of TTP were achieved in the highly basic waters. They were measured to be 10.60 and 11.55 meq/g TTP with respect to Na and K ions, respectively. The removal capacities of the individual parts of TTP are estimated to be 7.68 and 3.83 meq/g for titanium oxyhydroxide and hydrogen titanium phosphate, respectively, with respect to K ion. At high pH values, all exchangeable protons in the hydrogen titanium phosphate and titanium oxyhydroxide participated in the removal processes. Data also revealed that supporting TTP on activated carbon enhanced its removal efficiency. The exposed surface area of supported TTP sample increased against the targeted cations during the removal experiments. Finally, full analysis of withdrawn real wastewater samples was conducted before and after their treatment using TTP materials. Both TTP and TTPC showed satisfied performance toward the removal of various metal ions and even against organic pollutants.
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